The Aldabra Foundation was presented with the 2006 Gold Mercury Environment Award for its work in providing specialised knowledge and financial support to ensure the preservation of the ecosystem and environment of Aldabra. Aldabra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, holding the finest surviving tropical atoll ecosystem and the largest raised coral atoll on earth. Due to its unique ecosystems and the species within, it is ecologically and scientifically valuable. The Foundation recognises this and aims to ensure the preservation of the atoll, as well as to promote scientific research into Aldabra’s pristine marine and terrestrial environments. The Aldabra Foundation’s goal is to secure the ecological wonders of Aldabra for future generations by creating the resources and harnessing the expertise required for this task. The increasing impact of human activity is contributing to the decline of the world’s coral reefs, however Aldabra has thus far escaped much of these stresses. Because of this it provides a natural laboratory for studying tropical marine ecosystems and related environments. The Foundation’s mission is to set up a highly developed research facility on the atoll, which will be capable of supporting world leading scientific research into the environment. This will in turn enable comparative terrestrial and marine analysis to achieve a better understanding of ecological change as well as specific anthropogenic impacts on tropical ecosystems such as overfishing, pollution, global warming and ocean acidification.